


Leave a Light On

by shewritesall



Series: Romanogers Short Stories [17]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Post-Mission, Rape, romanogers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-16 06:00:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18685549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewritesall/pseuds/shewritesall
Summary: After a bad mission, Natasha goes to a bar on her way home.  Still reeling from everything that had gone wrong, she doesn't notice when someone slips something into her drink.





	Leave a Light On

Natasha was still reeling from her mission as she left SHIELD.  Things hadn’t gone so great and even though Fury had tried to tell her it wasn’t her fault they lost the hard drive and that three of SHIELD’s best agents were in the hospital, she didn’t believe him.  All three agents were supposed to recover fine, but they looked like death and Natasha barely had four bruises and a sprained wrist. The other two agents with her had gotten out relatively unharmed as well, but that didn’t make up for the three that hadn’t.

She didn’t feel ready to go home yet, knowing that as soon as she did, Steve would ask how the mission had gone.  She didn’t feel like talking about it again just yet, so instead of going home, she went to the bar down the street from her home.  She parked her motorcycle outside then walked in to see if she could drink enough to make her forget why she’d come. She doubted they had anything strong enough to knock her out in two sips, so she settled on straight vodka and looked out across the bar.

There were couples sitting together at tables, rowdy drunks playing billiards, and groups of college students yelling at each other loudly from their tables.  She barely blinked as a man walked up to the counter beside her and ordered something to drink, too distracted by her thoughts to notice he’d sat down beside her until he was nudging her arm.  She glanced at him and he smiled kindly, offering her a drink.

“You look like you could use it,”  he said. Natasha smiled and took the drink.  “Rough day at work?”

“Yeah,”  Natasha breathed, turning to face the man and taking a drink from her glass.  She frowned imperceptibly at the funny taste and tried it again to see if it was just an aftertaste.  It wasn’t much, but she could tell she wasn’t drinking straight vodka. “What is this?” she asked the man, nodding at her drink.

“Oh, just vodka,”  he replied. He motioned towards the bartender.  “He said that’s what you’d ordered earlier and you seem to have enjoyed it.”

“This isn’t straight vodka,”  Natasha told him, frowning at the drink.  She suddenly became hyper aware of the fact that things were blurry to her.  She squinted, trying to figure out what was going on, but her vision remained blurry and her arms felt heavy.  She dropped the glass of vodka on the bar counter, only vaguely aware of the man beside her helping her stand and guide her out of the room.  She began to panic as she realised she’d been drugged and hadn’t noticed. She tried to pull away from the man, but she seemed to move in slow motion and couldn’t pull away.

“It’s alright,”  the man promised, continuing to push her up the stairs.  She struggled to see straight and tried to fight off the man, but her body felt heavy and everything was a dull blur.

The man shoved her onto the bed and she fell sprawled out on the hard mattress.  She tried to scream, but the man covered her mouth before she could think of the words she wanted to say.  He crawled on top of her, not affected by her weak thrashing at all. She tried to push him off, but he didn’t have to work very hard to overpower her while she was drugged so heavily.

Natasha couldn’t do anything but lie on the bed and struggle to see straight as the man pulled off her shirt roughly.  His shirt came off next followed by his belts. She heard his belt buckle hit the floor and seconds later felt his hands pulling off her pants and underwear as well.  She tried to push him away, struggling to get her body to move how she wanted it to, but he just climbed on top of her.

“Stop struggling,”  he growled, hitting her hard across the face.  Her head rolled to the side and he punched her again.  She let out a weak yell as she turned to face him again but he didn’t hit her again.  He covered her mouth as he pushed himself into her harshly. She screamed, but her hand did enough to muffle it no one heard her.  With each thrust, she cried out and fought harder, but it was no use. In her drugged state, she couldn’t do anything to get the man off of her.

Natasha wasn’t sure how long she was stuck there, unable to move or fight back, before the drug started to wear off.  The man had only taken brief moments of pause between each time he violated her, moving her around for different positions and getting more and more aggressive each time.  It was his fifth time and Natasha was lying on her stomach as he thrusted into her from behind when she felt like she could see straight. She tried moving her arm and although it was slower than usual, she was back in control.

Natasha flipped over, biting back a cry of pain as the movement sent sharp pains up her body.  The man fell off the bed as her foot collided with his face, pulling out of her at the action. Natasha tried to sit up, but her body was still too weak and it was painful.  When the man realised she was regaining control of her movements, he gathered up his clothes hastily and redressed.

“Bitch,”  he snarled, punching her jaw once more before leaving the room.  Natasha was left alone after that, hoping the drug would wear off quickly.  When it finally did, she forced herself to sit up. Her legs and lower abdomen screamed in protest, but she ignored it as best she could.  She weakly got dressed and looked around for her phone. It had slid across the room when her pants had come off and she had to crawl to get it, unable to stand up.  She turned it on to check the time and choked back a sob when she realised she’d been stuck for nearly four hours. Steve had texted her multiple times in the last two hours, getting more and more panicked with each text.  The last one had been sent fifteen minutes ago when he’d said he was calling the team to search for her. Her eyes widened and she quickly texted him, telling him not to get the team and to come pick her up. Instead of texting back, he called her.

“Hello,”  Natasha said quietly, pulling her knees to her chest despite the aching it caused.  The room was dark, but she could still see the bed where the man had abused her for four hours.

“Natasha, oh my god!”  Steve exclaimed, exhaling loud enough she heard it over the phone.  “I was so worried. Fury said you’d left SHIELD almost four hours ago but you never came home and I panicked.  Are you okay? Where are you? I’ll come get you.”

“I’m at Dun’s,”  Natasha told him, barely above a whisper.  There was a pause where Natasha figured Steve was making sure he heard her right.

“The bar down the street?”  he asked. Natasha nodded then realised he couldn’t see her.  “What are you doing there? Do you still need me to come get you?”

“Please,”  she said, her voice breaking.

“Alright,”  Steve said softly, obviously catching onto the fact that something wasn’t right.  “I’ll be there in five minutes,” he promised. He hung up and Natasha buried her face in her knees to wait for Steve.  About five minutes after Steve had hung up, he called her again to ask where she was.

“Upstairs,”  Natasha told him.  The image of the man pushing her into the room flashed through her mind and she flinched.  “First door on the right.”

“What are you doing upstairs?”  Steve asked. She didn’t answer, listening to his pounding footsteps as he bounded up the stairs.  The door flew open and light flooded the room. Natasha dropped her phone and Steve glanced in her direction at the noise.  He shut the door behind him, hurrying over to Natasha and dropping down in front of her. She flinched when he put a hand on her knee but he didn’t pull away.  “Natasha? What happened?” Steve asked softly. Natasha opened her mouth to say something, but no words came to mind. Instead, her eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip trembled.  She let out a cry and pulled herself to Steve’s chest.

“I couldn’t do anything,”  she choked out between her cries.  Steve’s arms around her tightened and she shook as she let out another sob.  “He drugged me and I couldn’t…”

“Oh, Natasha,”  Steve whispered, pulling her as close to him as he could.  He felt tears prick his own eyes as Natasha continued to cry.  He kissed her head, trying to make her feel better but knowing there was nothing he could do to help.  He kissed her forehead and the side of her face as tears made their way down his own cheeks and hugged her tightly.  She cried until she couldn’t breath and only then did she stop. Her ragged breaths and occasional hiccups were the only sound in the room aside from Steve’s sniffles every now and then.

“Can we please go home?”  Natasha whispered, burying her face deeper in Steve’s chest.  Steve nodded and gently scooped her up into his arms. His heart clenched as she sucked in a painful breath and he nuzzled her head with his nose, pressing a light kiss to her temple.

Steve carried her out to the car, keeping her on his lap even as he drove back to the apartment.  It was only a few blocks away and there weren’t any cops out this time of night. Besides, he wasn’t going to let go of Natasha until he knew she was alright and maybe not even then.

He took her up to their flat, keeping her close to his chest as he carried her back to their bedroom.  Instead of changing her like he usually would have if she’d fallen asleep on the way home, he grabbed her pyjamas and had her dress herself.  Once she was changed, he turned back around and knelt on the ground on front of her. She kept her hands pressed together tightly between her legs and was looking down at her lap.

“Natasha?”  Steve asked softly.  She looked up at him and he noticed the dark bruise forming on her face.  He frowned and gently brushed the swollen skin. More tears sprang into her eyes and he reached out to hug her again.

He laid them back on the bed, pulling the covers up to Natasha’s chin while keeping her wrapped securely in his arms.  She tucked herself as close to him as she could, clinging onto him desperately. Steve held her just as tightly, trying not to sleep as he laid beside her to guarantee she’d be alright for the rest of the night.

 

As badly as Steve wanted last night to be a horrible nightmare, it wasn’t.  He woke up to see a dark purple bruise on Natasha’s face and tear stains on her cheeks.  She was sleeping, but based on how tense she was in his arms, it wasn’t very peaceful. He let her rest, staying beside her for as long as she stayed asleep.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before her eyes snapped open and she pushed herself away from Steve quickly.

“Hey, hey,”  he said softly, sitting up but not moving towards her.  Natasha looked at him with wide eyes as she took deep breaths.  “You’re okay, Nat. You’re not there anymore, you’re at home.” Natasha nodded and crawled across the bed into his lap.  Steve’s arms automatically went around her and she gripped his arm tightly. They stayed like that until Steve’s phone rang and he had to pull away.  He grabbed it then returned to Natasha, keeping her curled up on his lap as he answered Tony’s call.

“You found her, right?”  Tony asked. Natasha tensed in Steve’s arms and he rubbed her arm soothingly.

“Yeah, I got her,”  Steve replied, looking down at Natasha who looked incredibly small in his arms.  “She texted right after I called. We’re okay.”

“Alright,”  Tony said, sounding relieved.  “Call next time, okay? We’ve been searching New York for the past few hours.”

“God, I’m sorry, Tony,”  Steve said, immediately feeling bad about forgetting he’d called in the team.  “I forgot when I found her. She’s okay now.”

“What happened?”  Tony asked immediately.  Steve knew Natasha didn’t want the whole team to know what had happened, so he came up with an excuse about needing medical attention.

“She didn’t check in with SHIELD and passed out on the way home,”  Steve lied easily. Tony hummed, letting Steve know he didn’t believe him but wasn’t going to push it.

“She’s okay for sure, right?”  Tony asked just to be sure. “You don’t need the Compound for more medical attention or anything?”

“No, we’ll be alright,”  Steve assured him. He thanked Tony then hung up, hugging Natasha tightly.  “You’ll be okay,” he told her, kissing the side of her head. “We’ll find that asshole and kill him.”


End file.
